Gardeners' Notes:

This grows quickly enough here in Boston to work well as an annual bedding plant. A plant in a 4" pot planted in May gets large enough to make an impact in late summer and through the fall. Not winter hardy here, of course, but worth it as an annual.

Very vigorous and blooms almost all year in my garden. I grow it inside a tomato cage, as it is pretty floppy in the partly shaded location where I have it. I'm going to take cuttings and plant it elsewhere in full sun and see if it is less floppy. A magnet for bees.

This plant has striking deep purple flowers which are favorites of the butterflies, bumble bees and amberwings. In Florida, it's fast-growing and very easy to propagate via cuttings or layering. It's semi-cold hardy in zone 9, usually dying back to the roots and coming up the next year with a vengeance. The only complaint I have is that the stems frequently break under their own weight as they grow larger.

This is an amazing plant in bloom. Unfortunately it's not reliably hardy in Seattle despite being in Zone 8b. Also, the low heat accumulation in Seattle in summer causes this plant to bloom late in the season, and the blooms are wiped out prematurely most years by the first frosts.

I live in San Antonio. The plant is beautiful, I have it in a partial sun situation, and it blooms great. The problem-I have to water it almost every day in the summer, or it wilts terrible. Even in the evening when most of the other plants perk back up after the sun, it stays wilted. The phillipine violet, hollyhock, and other plants don't require near as much water. I though a salvia would be more drought tolerant. Does anyone else have this problem?

I have never seen any plant attract bumble bees like this one. This grows UP TO SIX FEET TALL!!!!!! Don't pay attention to the tag that says up to 36 inches!! Mine grew so big that it flopped over onto the grass and my husband was concerned about taking the lawn mover through the area for all the bees. It is a great bee plant and I had to cut mine down and move them to a place where they will be able to thrive next year. I am glad another gardener stated that cuttings root and I will try that next year and share with others. Love it and will keep in my garden :)

Continuously in bloom here in Central Florida for 14 months, though we had no heavy frosts this winter. Easily propagated by layering and cuttings. Mine is now 4'x4', with the center very upright (stems to 4') and the periphery recumbent and twisting. Lasts several days (4-5) as a cut flower. Not unpleasant medicinal smell to the leaves, but none in the flower. Now that it's well established, I've never seen any droop in the heat or dry periods. Very attractive with yellow clumping Lantana.

Beautiful, prolific and carefree plant that I planted this past spring and whose blooms I still enjoy today in my 7A zone. At first, I thought I had planted them too far apart (about 1'), but they have expanded very nicely, to form one continuous border. I hope they will survive the winter in the garden and come back to show their deep blue flowers again. I actually hope I will be able to take some cuttings to create another border. I'll let you know in the spring how they liked the cold. As a matter of fact, if anyone has any tip on how to preserve some, just in case it gets too cold for them to survive, I'd appreciate. Thanks.

We put this plant in our butterfly garden to provide nectar, and it is prolific. with blooms as well as butterflies. We keep it deadheaded so more blooms appear. We have had it 2 years and it is a beauty. It was successfully propagated by springtime cuttings, directly into the ground and water rooted (with root hormones). The best part was finding the monarch caterpillars on it. We decided to bring in that branch and root it, to our surprise within days a chrysalis was formed! 2 weeks later a monarch butterfly materialized. The caterpillars had eaten and grown on the butterfly weed next to the salvia. I think it just used the salvia as a quiet hiding place. There were 2 caterpillars on the salvia that day, and two eating on the butterfly weed. I did not see them eat any salvia, but we sur... read moree got to witness the metamorphis. What a treat! pic. enclosed

This is an extremely large and very beautiful plant, much like an overgrown Salvia 'Victoria'. Its long stems and purple-blue "spires" twist, turn and curl in a most fascinating manner. It is a prolific bloomer with long-lasting flowers that can be used to add wonderful interest to an arrangement, or hang them to dry.

Although it makes a glorious container plant, it is truly spectacular in the garden mixed with yellows, pale pink or white. It enjoys a reasonably moist soil or the leaves will go limp and droop quite quickly. Deadhead to keep the flowers coming non-stop. One of my favorite plants.